10.06.2007
How to improve digital freedom for users inside Burma
_ By AKS
New regulations in Myamar (Burma) requires the internet cafes to snap screen shots of what users are browsing every 5 minutes and send to Myanmar Teleport at the end of the month. That is ridiculous and that is big-brotherly. No one wants some stranger to look above shoulder to see what site he or she is browsing. Feeling disgusted by that big-brotherly attitude, I will try to provide some ideas on how to fool those prying eyes.
I assume they will provide some software (as part of the regulation) to install on the workstations or kiosks of the internet shops. That type of software must involve an operating system or Kernel Timer that will kick in at every predefined interval. And there is a feature on IBM PC that can print out whatever on screen by sending to the Printer port in DOS days (for remote debugging). On IPB PC keyboards if one presses Print Screen System Request "Prnt Scrn" button then the system will copy whatever content the monitor screen is displaying (data that is residing in memory for video graphic output section and that memory can be copied to another memory or a file, one can test that by pressing the print screen and open Microsoft Paint and paste it there.)
So I assume, the software program what big brother regulators (Myanmar Teleport officials) will install on all internet browsing stations will consist of a data logger service that will log the user onto the station at the beginning of the user's internet session. Then it might start a Kernel timer provided by the Operating System Application Programmer Interface (API of OS); that timer will be self renewal, i.e. it will start that timer again in its pay load (what is supposed to execute when the timer kicked in), which consist of issuing system request that is called in usually when Print Screen key is pressed. It may also call another API function that copies from the buffer where print screen service copied the data from video memory and will be pasted to a file associated with that user and then that program should end when that user internet session end.
One way to fool that type of program is to develop a program that will hijack the kernel timer (by forced stopping the timer and restarting it but replace its payload with other dummy routines like instead of copying actual screen shots, it will simply copy pre arranged screen shots (those have to be harmless logical and sequential browsing activities to fool the human examiner in Myanmar Teleport). That can be done in Linux and there should be a way in Microsoft Windows too.
If that type of program is developed and distributed as a freeware or a bot (like ad bots), then the blame cannot be put on the internet cafe operators too. I think if one could have a look of the program the big brother install on kiosks (internet browsing workstations /PC at internet cafes), then it will be very easy to reverse engineer and develop a fix to fool them so that they will be looking at play backs instead of real user's activity. It is like what the movie star Kenu Reeve did in the movie Speed to fool the terrorist bomber by fooling him with a replay of the CCTV.
Comments:
May Ng said _
As reported in NY Times Digital Fears Emerge After Data Siege in Estonia, the
first war in cyberspace; a month long campaign that has forced Estonian
authorities to defend their pint-size Baltic nation from a data flood that they
say was set off by orders from Russia or ethnic Russian sources in retaliation
for the removal of a Soviet statue.
Online Burmese websites and articles are routinely scrambled or blocked by cyber
attackers from Burma and other governments. Sometimes even people in the US have
to go through proxy to reach those articles.
Thank you and hope you will share more of the insiders knowledge about
cyberspace to help in our race for freedom.
Your Comments here_
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